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Really, CG?
http://majorityleader.gov/YouCut/
Now, as our new majority continues to work to cut spending and grow our economy,
No austerity comes from cutting deficits. In Greece's case austerity came from cutting benefits and raising taxes.
Really, CG?
http://majorityleader.gov/YouCut/
Now, as our new majority continues to work to cut spending and grow our economy,
In some ways I can see Greece's point. Under the EU plan it's going to take them two generations to pay down the huge load of debt they are carrying forward and their life/economy is gonna suck anyway. It just might be worth the risk to say it...we are defaulting and start fresh.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...010202155.html
"The American people want a smaller, more accountable government. And starting Wednesday, the House of Representatives will be the American people's outpost in Washington, D.C.," Boehner said. "We are going to fight for their priorities: cutting spending, repealing the job-killing health care law and helping get our economy moving again."
Now, if you ask me to provide a link proving that water is indeed wet, I will ignore it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...010202155.html
led, Cut Spending to Grow the Economy.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-bl...ow-the-economy
Not saying there aren't a bunch of republicans out there who want to cut taxes (which I do not support btw). But I haven't seen anyone trying to pass that off as an actual austerity plan. If anyone is, then they're fools.
You're talking past each other. Austerity measures include cuts in government spending which is a conservative position. But they also include tax increases - albeit VAT increases - which I'm sure is not a part of the conservative agenda. The short term goal of the Greek cuts is to stop default - as CG said - and promote growth in the long term.
http://aleksandreia.wordpress.com/20...rity-measures/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/wo.../07greece.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/op...gman.html?_r=1
On one side, we’re constantly told that if we don’t slash spending immediately we’ll end up just like Greece, unable to borrow except at exorbitant interest rates. On the other, we’re told not to worry about the impact of spending cuts on jobs because fiscal austerity will actually create jobs by raising confidence.
Thanks. This is what I was trying to convey. Republicans are selling tax cuts as good economic practice. That's a different and much broader situation than austerity where you have a government in specific negotiations with creditors to avoid a sovereign debt default. Since the U.S. isn't facing imminent default like Greece is (yet...), there is no American austerity package for republicans to want tax cuts to be a part of.
Also increases in real estate taxes - whatever that means:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...erity-measuresIn June, the Greek parliament voted 155-138 for a €28bn (£24bn) five-year programme of cuts, tax rises and asset sales. Riots followed. George Papandreou's majority has now shrunk to three. Without a referendum he may not be able to push through the reforms Brussels wants. The programme includes:
• Balancing Greece's budget by 2014. In 2010 Greek state spending was 12% higher than revenues.
• Putting 30,000 civil servants on 12 months' notice with a 60% pay cut and extending to 2014 a move to replace only one in 10 of those leaving or retiring from the public sector.
• Pensions of more than €1,200 a month cut by 20% and payments for those who retired before 55 cut by up to 40%. A 10% pension cut had already been agreed in previous austerity plans.
• Extend a higher real estate tax to 2014 and reduce the tax-free threshold from €12,000 to €5,000 a year.
• An increase in VAT from 19% to 23% and taxes on everything from cars, tobacco and alcohol to a windfall tax on large companies' profits.
• Privatisation of the state lottery, Athens and enikon airports, four Airbus A340 aircraft and 2004 Olympic venues, hotels, beaches, marinas and casinos. Also the main gas distributor, petrol refiner, the main railway operator and the motorways.
I'd also mention the IMF's presence and the fact that European bank's agreed to a 50% cut in their loans shows this is driven more by avoiding default than some spurring economic growth.
Exactly. Austerity is all about what's best for the banks, nothing more.
Austerity is the practice of lowering deficits and spending. Tax increases can be a part of that but they are not a defining characteristic of austerity. And yes, the actions in Greece were meant to avoid detail but the original comment that started this conversation was based in sarcasm.
Al of that aside, terms is no doubt the gop wants to practice their version of austerity and is selling it as a pathway to economic growth.
There's no point in belaboring this further - but what started this all this:
Which is incorrect in claiming austerity = tax cuts.
All I'm saying is that I think the GOP would have a tough time swallowing a package similar to the Greek one.
You are right, they didn't even want to discuss it when the $4T package was being talked about in august.
Oh please
The $4T was never a serious offer and we all know it. It was just positioning and posturing to kick the re-election campaign off.
Boehner was on board until his party said no.
Oh, and which $4T plan were you talking about??? The Obama/Boehner bipartisan or the Gang of Six Bipartisan?
Boehner was on board with talking until Obama made tax increases non-negotiable.
the austerity being pushed as solution (VRWC wants to drown govt in a bathtub) to the fabricated deficit crisis RESULTS in large part from the the dubya/Repug tax cuts. That's the relation between austerity and tax cuts.
Then throw in 2 botched, unfunded wars approaching $3T, unfunded Medicare Part D, subsidized/unfunded Medicare advantage, and you get the deficit as dubya left office
Anybody that lived in a country with fairly high IMF debt would know IMF packages are ing criminal... It's not just "cut spending" and "raise taxes", but also "privatize everything to foreign interests", neo-capitalism, etc. The same foreign companies that will start sucking away the country's wealth when they don't agree with the government anymore.
The IMF and their ed up policies are fairly well do ented to be partially the cause of emerging markets like Brazil taking a royal in the 90's, until Lula came around, gave them the middle finger and finally resurrected their economy. Argentina went through a similar period, and ended up solving it the same way: They paid off all the debt they had with them and sent them packing.
When they BOTH announced it, it included a 3 to 1 ratio of spending cuts to revenue increases. When he supported it, he knew that taxes increases were included.... Until he didn't support it for knowing that tax increases were included (after his party said no).
.... and the gang of six?
"privatize everything to foreign interests"
aka "shock capitalism" http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine
happening right now in Greece
Yeah, and those countries don't have a clue!
LONG LIVE Colonialism....
Government in Greece Teeters After Move on Referendum
The Greek government was plunged into chaos on Tuesday, as lawmakers rebelled against Prime Minister George Papandreou’s surprise call for a popular referendum on a new debt deal with Greece’s foreign lenders.
The revolt by lawmakers and a no-confidence vote planned for Friday raised the prospect of a government collapse that would not only render the referendum plan moot but probably would scuttle — or at least delay — the debt deal that European leaders agreed on after marathon negotiations in Brussels last week. That, in turn, could put Greece on a fast track to default and raises the prospect of the country’s exit from the monetary union of countries sharing the euro currency.
The political instability in Greece has long dismayed European officials, who fear that it could touch off a financial market panic that could cause a damaging run on other shaky European economies like that of Italy, which is mired in its own political crisis. Indeed, European markets plunged on Tuesday on the news from Greece, in most cases in excess of four percent.
http://www.truth-out.org/government-...dum/1320170567
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